Additional Support Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

4/25/2012 8:33 PM ET

The Taiwan stock market has moved higher now in consecutive trading days, rising more than 80 points or 0.95 percent in the process. The Taiwan Stock Exchange finished just above the 7,560-point plateau, and now investors are expecting to see the market extend its gains when it opens on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive following upbeat commentary from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Fed left interest rates at near-zero levels and also noted that further easing was a possibility, if conditions warranted. The European and U.S. markets finished firmly higher, and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology, paper, finance, plastics, textile, cement and construction sectors.

For the day, the index jumped 64.34 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 7,563.18 after trading between 7,525.69 and 7,569.25 on turnover of 68.95 billion Taiwan dollars.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as stocks saw significant strength on Wednesday, with traders reacting positively to better than expected quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL). The markets continued to perform well following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

The strong upward move followed upbeat earnings news from Apple, the world's largest publicly-traded company by market capitalization. After the close of trading on Tuesday, Apple reported second quarter earnings of $12.30 per share, higher than $6.40 per share last year, while revenues jumped 59 percent to $39.2 billion.

Stocks saw continued strength following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement, which was largely unchanged from the previous statement. The Fed left interest rates at near-zero levels and reiterated that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.

Additionally, the central bank said it now expects GDP to increase by 2.4 to 2.9 percent in 2012 compared to its previous forecast for 2.2 to 2.7 percent growth. Fed Chairman Bernanke assured that all policy tools remain at the Fed's disposal, but analysts say the Fed's optimistic outlook takes additional asset purchases off the table barring a turn for the worse for the economy.

Meanwhile, traders shrugged off a report from the Commerce Department showing that durable goods orders tumbled by 4.2 percent in March following a revised 1.9 percent increase in February. Economists had expected a drop of about 1.5 percent.

After moving sharply higher in early trading, the major averages hovered firmly in positive territory throughout the day. The Dow rose 89.16 points or 0.7 percent to finish at 13,090.72, while the NASDAQ surged up 68.03 points or 2.3 percent to end at 3,029.63 and the S&P 500 climbed 18.72 points or 1.4 percent to 1,390.69.

On the economic front, Taiwan's M2 money supply increased 5.05 percent on year in March, the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) said on Wednesday. The value of currency held by the public advanced 8.31 percent annually, while deposits rose 4.7 percent. There was a 5.3 percent annual growth in loans and investments during the month.

On a monthly basis, the M2 money supply decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.04 percent at the end of March, while the M1B money supply dropped 0.65 percent. In three months ended March, on average the M2 money supply increased 5.07 percent from the same period last year, data showed.